


Things Unseen

by chicafrom3



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Coming Out, F/F, Families of Choice, Friendship, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 04:46:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3755020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicafrom3/pseuds/chicafrom3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maya comes home. And she's got something to tell the Matthews family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things Unseen

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the first draft of this after seeing the pilot episode, then promptly dumped it in a text file and forgot about it. I stumbled back upon it recently and discovered that I didn't hate it, so I rewrote it to be a little more season-one-compliant and here it is.
> 
> Set about five or six years in the future, after the girls' first semester of college.
> 
> I don't know where Katy and Farkle are during all this.

"I haven't told the Matthews about you," Maya says in the middle of a discussion about a musical Julia wants to go see while they're in New York. It's not a good segue.

To Julia's credit, she doesn't blink an eye. Maybe Maya does this a lot. She hadn't noticed before. She makes a mental note to pay more attention to her conversational transitions. All Julia says is, "Like, in general? Or that you're taking me to Christmas dinner? Because it might be kind of awkward if I just show up at these people's family celebration unannounced."

"In general. I told them I was bringing somebody with me to dinner. Just not that it was my girlfriend. Or, you know, that I have a girlfriend." Sometimes Maya can be a little bit of a coward. She consoles herself with the thought that at least she didn't make Julia walk in unaware that the Matthews didn't know about her. Feeling guilty all over again, she adds, "So if you don't want to deal with that, we can, I don't know, we can skip it and get Chinese or something."

"Isn't Riley your best friend ever, since you were in diapers, or something?"

"Well, yeah -- "

"Because you never shut up about her. It's all Riley this and Riley that. Sometimes," Julia says, but she's smiling and looks like she means it, "I think you like Riley more than me."

"Of course I do," Maya says, because it's important that Julia understands this. "Best friend always trumps love interest."

"Fair enough. We're going to your friend's Christmas dinner," Julia says. "According to you you haven't missed a Matthews Christmas dinner since you were six, I'm not going to make you start now. Although if you want to try making it less awkward you could always tell them ahead of time that your date's a girl."

"Um," Maya says.

"Or we could just show up and see how it goes." Julia grins.

Maya thinks she could really love this girl.

 

College has been rough on their friendship.

It's not that Maya's really worried about it. After everything she and Riley have been through together, she knows they'll get through everything else the world throws at them; nothing's going to rip them apart. But still, sometimes she envies Riley's parents, who apparently dragged their whole social circle to college with them, favorite teacher included; with Maya studying art in Boston and Riley studying literature in San Diego, not to mention the whole thing where Riley is in class all the time and Maya works two part-time jobs to cover expenses, it's hard keeping in touch, even with texting and e-mail and Facebook and Tumblr and Skype, and that puts a strain on them both.

On the plus side, it totally made it a breeze to hide her developing sexuality crisis and resultant girlfriend.

Which maybe wasn't such a good thing, Maya considers, now that she's about to show up on Riley's doorstep with her admittedly super-hot girlfriend.

Riley wasn't able to get a flight until the last minute, which has helped with Maya's web of deceit and lies, too; she didn't have to make excuses to avoid catching up before Christmas dinner.

It's probably weird that she's so determined to out herself at the Matthews' Christmas dinner and not a minute before, but on the other hand, she figures this way she can come out to everybody -- well, everybody who matters -- at once instead of in stages. And surely somebody there will be on her side. If Riley freaks out about it, as Riley sometimes freaks out about things, maybe Shawn will take her side.

She doesn't want Riley to freak out. She doesn't want anybody to freak out.

"If you're not ready to go in we can walk around the block another time," Julia says brightly.

Maya really, really wants to take her up on it, but she's not that much of a coward. "Everybody's probably there by now," she says instead. "We might as well go in."

Julia takes her hand and squeezes it, and they head inside.

The Matthews' apartment is a madhouse, and as soon as they're inside, Maya feels warm and safe and at home. The way the Matthews have always somehow made her feel. She doesn't see Riley right away, but Mr. Matthews and his brothers are fussing over the tree, as Mrs. Matthews gives them instructions from the couch with Auggie, and it's all so gloriously familiar that for a moment Maya is intensely homesick, as if that makes any sense at all. She likes Boston; she likes her school and she likes her jobs and she likes the feeling of having escaped from her mother's world. But she misses this.

Mrs. Matthews spots her first. "Maya! Come over here and help me tell these guys what they're doing wrong. Riley! Maya's here! Introduce us to your friend . . . ?"

Maya isn't totally sure whether she pulls Julia over to the couch or Julia pulls her. She says, "Hi, Mrs. Matthews," and can't say anything else. She can't introduce Julia. Not until Riley's there.

And then Riley's there.

San Diego's been good to her -- blurry Facebook photos tagged by people Maya doesn't know don't do her justice -- but even with the slightly more fashionable haircut, and the clothes that are just a tiny bit inappropriate for New York's December cold snap, and the better posture and more confident smile, she's Riley through and through, and Maya's breath catches in her throat; how did she ever think it was a good idea to avoid her best friend for so long?

She lets go of Julia's hand, vaults over the couch, and wraps Riley up in a hug, and Riley almost pulls her off her feet. Maya remembers when she was taller than Riley. That growth spurt just wasn't fair.

They basically shout at each other for a while. Maya isn't really listening to what Riley's saying, but then she's not listening to the words coming out of her own mouth, either. It's just ritual. Unload everything at once, and then later they can go back and slow down and actually update each other on their lives.

It's only after they've both stopped talking, but her arms are still around Riley's waist and Riley's still hanging on to her neck, that Maya looks back at Julia, who is sitting patiently next to Mrs. Matthews.

She says, "Riley . . . Riley's family . . . "

"All these years, and we're still just 'Riley's family'," Riley's uncle Eric mocks, twisting a bit of tinsel around a tree limb.

Riley's uncle Josh laughs at that, and it stabs at Maya's heart a little -- God, she really loved him once, and it would've been so easy, so _neat_ , just to end up with him and become a part of this family in a way everyone would have to recognize -- and she takes a quick little breath before saying: "I wanna introduce you to somebody. This is Julia. My girlfriend."

She's been over this moment so many times in her head. Sometimes she imagines Riley bursting into tears and asking why Maya didn't tell her sooner. Sometimes she imagines Mr. Matthews blowing up and throwing both of them out of his house, forbidding her from ever talking to Riley again. Sometimes it's Josh -- he goes pale and furious and betrayed. Or sometimes there's just dead silence and everybody staring at her.

Never, in any of her imaginings, did she come up with Mrs. Matthews saying, "Welcome to our home, Julia. Turkey or tofurkey?"

"Turkey's fine," Julia says. "Thank you for having me."

"Mom's the only one who eats the tofurkey," Riley says, "And she usually steals some of Dad's turkey anyway, so I don't know why we actually have tofurkey every year."

"I'll eat some of your tofurkey, Mom," Auggie says, and his mom puts an arm around him --

"I knew you were my favorite for a reason."

Shawn -- Jesus, Maya didn't even notice he was there, she's off her game; he leans out of the kitchen, beer in hand, and calls, "Did I hear that right? Somebody's actually gotten our little Maya to settle down?"

Maya can't let that pass. "Just because I have a girlfriend doesn't mean I've settled down."

Riley hugs her harder and says, "You'll see. Relationships are awesome. You'll love it. Julia! Come with me! We have to trade Maya stories."

"Oh, my God." Maya grabs Riley's arm and drags her back as she starts to bound off. Riley flails, off-balance but still trying to get to Julia. "No. No trading Maya stories."

"You brought her to Christmas dinner. She's going to hear _all_ the Maya stories. I bet Dad can come up with some."

"Oh, yeah," Mr. Matthews says from his position by the tree. "I got the best Maya stories. I just need some time to narrow down my options."

"Oh God, this was a terrible idea, wasn't it."

"It was a great idea," Julia says, grinning. "And I want to hear everyone's Maya stories. All of them."

Riley beams and pushes Maya away so she can drag Julia up to her room. Maya sinks onto the couch, not sure what she's feeling right now.

Mrs. Matthews puts an arm around her, too. "Welcome home, honey."

"Thanks," Maya says, and leans into the hug.

She doesn't remember when the Matthews' apartment became home, but she's not surprised that it is.

 

In the end it's not so bad.

Riley grills her about it when they get a moment in private. When she and Julia met, when they started dating, when Maya was persuaded to admit that she was in a relationship.

"I'm not that much of a commitment-phobe."

"I've known you our whole lives," Riley says, "And you have never once let anyone call you their girlfriend. Until now. Why didn't you tell me about her sooner?"

"You were busy. I was busy. We were both busy."

Riley gives her a Look.

Maya can't help smiling back. "I guess I was scared."

"Of all the jokes I was going to make about your commitment phobia?"

"Of your reaction to me dating a girl."

Riley goes quiet for a moment, and Maya wishes she'd let it go. But then Riley says again, "I've known you our whole lives. Come on, Maya. You have to know by now that I love you no matter what. Especially not because of who you date. I mean, you've stuck by me through some really awful guys."

Maya hugs her then, really hard, because if she doesn't she's going to cry. "There were some really awful guys. Remember -- what's his name -- the guy who only wore plaid?"

"Oh, and the guy who played Dungeons & Dragons seven nights a week, three hours every night."

"And the guy who proposed to you on the first date!"

Riley cringes. "God, I have dated some truly awful guys."

"You should've just stuck with Ranger Rick."

"Yeah. . . . We e-mail sometimes, you know."

"You do?" Maya sits up straighter. She hadn't known that. "I saw you friended him on Facebook." 

"I haven't seen him since he moved back to Texas but . . . yeah. We e-mail sometimes." Riley blushes.

Maya punches her lightly on the arm. "Talk about withholding information!"

"It's not a big deal."

"Suuure. You're only flirting with your first boyfriend."

"Hey," Riley says, all mock-stern like she thinks imitating her dad is going to get Maya off her back about Lucas, "We were talking about _your_ relationship."

After dinner Shawn gets her alone for a moment too, just to tell her that if she needs someone to talk to -- about anything -- she's got his e-mail address and his phone number and he's always available. She finds out later that while she was talking to Shawn, Mr. Matthews had pulled Julia aside to tell her how much Maya meant to Riley, and how long they'd been friends, and that he considered Maya a second daughter, so it would mean a lot to him if Julia would treat her well. When it's time to leave, Mrs. Matthews loads them both down with leftovers and presents and instructions for how to get cheap tickets to the show Julia wants to see.

Everybody hugs Maya, more than once. Most of them hug Julia, too.

Maya isn't sure whether that's because they want to show their support for her in what could be a very difficult time, or just because the Matthews family are huggers and always have been.

She finds she doesn't care very much.

"Your family's great," Julia says when they're walking back to the motel they're staying in over the break, since Maya's mom's place doesn't have much space.

"Riley's family," Maya corrects her.

"You realize you're part of Riley's family, right?"

Maya smiles. "Yeah."


End file.
